Anime Programs

I just did my first official Ani-mazing Anime Showing!

Yay! It was quite exhilarating I’ll say. However I have to wonder, with technology widespread and anime being available (pirated or streaming), is it worth showing anime at the public library anymore?

First thing is to pre-screen the series to be shown. The series have been pre-screened by me so to make sure the series can also be good for middle schoolers who want to watch, so context can be mentioned if there are questions.

How it works: The program is set at two Fridays a month after school (3 pm). Audience members can choose from a list of anime titles that can be shown at the next showing. In essence, it would be beneficial for an audience member to come to the first showing because they have a chance to vote for a series they want to show at the next showing, and so on. The trick also I had was to mix titles up, that way the audience doesn’t know which series I’ll be showing, it’ll be based on a vote by the audience members.

The thing is, I had to learn from previous YA librarians who held anime showings at their libraries. One librarian had teens suggest a series to show and when the time came, he didn’t show up. When she saw him later and asked why he didn’t show up because she showed the series he suggested, he replied that he had already seen it.

From that example, I had decided to the the aforementioned voting and mix and match series. However… Out of the participants (all of 3 people) have already seen what Crunchyroll had to offer, even the Premium episodes. Premium episodes can only be viewed by a paid member of Crunchyroll and will be free to watch after a certain time frame. There’s only so much that the library is licensed to show. From that, where does anime programs fit if it is so easily accessible? Another point to consider is that, because the series have been pre-screened, that means the series has to have finished already. Unless it is a remake of an old series, under that rule I cannot show brand new anime series that comes out each season.

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